The invention relates to a regulating valve of the type comprising a housing with a cylindrical valve chamber that has at least one inlet and at least two outlets. The inlet and the outlets of this type of valve can be at least partially closed as needed by a common valve body arranged in the valve chamber and rotatable around an axis. The valve body is designed as a rotary valve and is operable by an actuator. The inlet and/or at least one of the outlets is surrounded by a seal which can be brought into sealing engagement with the valve body under elastic preload.
Such a regulating valve is known from German Patent Application 26 32 476. The regulating valve in that patent application is designed as a valve for controlling flow and is used in a mixing faucet for mixing cold and hot water. Both the inlets and the outlets are arranged diametrically opposite one another, respectively, the inlets and the outlets being arranged at right angles to one other.
In that device, the actuating forces required to move the valve body to open the inlets, through the strong acceleration of the flow at the efflux edge of the valve body, are considerable, since the suction effects arising upon opening act upon the valve body in a manner that cause it to want to close. To overcome the suction forces, the actuator for that device should be designed to be correspondingly strong, which is a disadvantage economically and with regard to the compact dimensions of the valve.